I love "Moon River," but I catch myself going back and forth on "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The film is lovely and has a five star opening, a lovely bridge in the middle when Audrey sings "Moon River" on a guitar and a five-star ending. But the stuff in-between isn't funny to me, certainly not the party scene nor Mickey Rooney's efforts at playing a horny Japanese dolt while channeling Jerry Lewis. (But after a couple of beers, I admit I DO laugh at Rooney's facial expressions with his buck teeth and glasses, e.g., esp. when he says, "MISS GO-RIGHT-REE, I MAUST PRO-TEST!"). The movie plays better to me as drama than comedy. Cut some of the junk out and you have a masterpiece because the story is really about Audrey as a lost woman who puts on a front that she doesn't want to be tied to anyone but who in fact is dying to be loved. Without "Moon River" in "Tiffanys," I would go as far as saying you've lost 3/4ths of the heart of that picture! -d.
P.S. - A MoPo member wrote me privately today that another memorable tune is "Moonglow" in "Picnic." How could I have left that out? Great tune, especially when the violins come up mid-way through the piano. Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:20:28 -0600 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: OT: Bernard Herrmann, "Vertigo" and "The Artist" To: [email protected] Those songs are all memorable, of course. The history of MOON RIVER is addressed in FIFTH AVENUE, 5 A.M., Sam Wasson's little book about the making of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. This is a very entertaining read. The footnotes are almost as entertaining as the text. The most amazing thing about MOON RIVER is that the top exec at Paramount did not like it and wanted to rip it out. The producers had to fight for it. Paramount also wanted to have someone else sing it, not Audrey Hepburn. They also had to fight for hiring Henry Mancini! Imagine that. Today's TIFFANY'S will have no score at all, just songs by ADELE, FLEET FOXES, WILCO, you get the idea. Nothing against any of those artists, just saying! Another fascinating story in the book is how George Peppard thought HE was the star of the film! And nobody liked him. But the best is the account of the filming of the party and how that experience morphed into the idea for making THE PARTY. Kirby On Feb 14, 2012, at 12:33 AM, David Kusumoto wrote:Thanks for providing that link, Kirby. Great story-behind-the-song, "Unchained Melody." I never tire of hearing or reading about - the origins of some of the great classics of any decade. And wouldn't you know that of course some of the greatest songs have their genesis in bittersweet tales buried in the folds of some poor soul's brain. I think everyone remembers the one that either "got away" or "could have been something" - had you had the courage to act quickly on a passing window of time. Then, in an era of social media like Facebook - when you are indeed able to re-connect with that person or persons many years later - you find yourself lamenting at what could have been - and/or ruminating about time's unforgiving nature on the fresh memories of youth. Some songs and movies have tremendous replay value and I never tire hearing or watching them repeatedly. Songs in particular that weird me all out with emotion include the theme from "A Summer Place," "Moon River," "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," "The Way You Look Tonight" and - (here's one that's so corny that I'm afraid to admit it) - Petula Clark's rendition of "Downtown." Man oh man I'd love to learn the back stories of those songs. -d. Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:27:26 -0600From: [email protected]: Re: OT: Bernard Herrmann, "Vertigo" and "The Artist"To: [email protected] Alex North was and is one of my favorite film score composers. I loved his score for SPARTACUS, for CLEOPATRA, and for WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? I was disappointed in '64 when North's magnificent score for CLEOPATRA lost to John Addison's magnificent score for TOM JONES. Years later I still love both. But perhaps North's greatest single achievement was writing the melody for one of the most beautiful popular songs ever written, "Unchained Melody", from the rather unknown film UNCHAINED (1955). The story of this song is very interesting. I learned some things I did not know about the unusual history of the song when I googled the title not long ago.... This is the link: http://www.martin.mesanetworks.net/unchained/unchained.html There are many good versions of the song, but, for me, no version is as alluring as the fragment of the song that is heard in Joni Mitchell's "Chinese Cafe / Unchained Melody" on her early eighties album "Wild Things Run Fast." Kirby Kirby McDanielMovieArt Original Film PostersP.O. Box 4419Austin TX 78765-4419512 479 6680 www.movieart.netmobile 512 589 5112 On Feb 13, 2012, at 10:52 PM, Neil Jaworski wrote:I haven't seen The Artist yet, but will take a bet that it was not the director's original intention to use the Herrmann, but that he fell in love with his temp track and then wouldn't replace it with scored music. The most famous example of this, of course, is Kubrick scrapping poor Alex North's perfectly serviceable score for 2001 in favour of the rather better known tunes he already had on LP.... From: David Kusumoto <[email protected]>To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, 14 February 2012, 4:09Subject: [MOPO] OT: Bernard Herrmann, "Vertigo" and "The Artist" Note: The links below have been tested and are safe. * I went to see "The Artist" a second time to confirm my initial positive feelings about it. If you've seen "Vertigo" (1958) - then you already know its score by master composer Bernard Herrmann is a classic. It's so effective at bringing out feelings of tragedy - or inexplicable longing for something unattainable - that the musical passage below was brought back for "The Artist" - and is heard in the film in its entirety: http://bit.ly/waRJoP * Some film buffs found the Herrmann music inappropriate in "The Artist." But I thought it enhanced the picture despite being applied to a story that has an old-fashioned ending. And I bet most audiences today cannot reference the music back to "Vertigo." * And for those who can't get enough of Herrmann -- here's the chilling theme that runs over the opening credits of "Vertigo." (The theme below is NOT heard in "The Artist"). http://bit.ly/xovThM Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
